Silk gloves to kill the revolution

By Nicanor Leon Cotayo, Prensa Latina, 30 August 1996

ONE of the front organizations utilized by the U. S. government to
carry out subversive plans against Cuba is the Washington-based
Freedom House Foundation, and the person in charge of leading these
activities is one of the organization's top men, Frank Calzon.

Freedom House presents itself as a nongovernmental organization
which promotes human rights in the world and is politically neutral,
but it is actually a mouthpiece for the White House. Nonetheless, in
1995 it was given full membership in the UN Human Rights Commission,
in the role of a "consultative" agency.

Its president is Adrian Karatnycky and its director in the U.S.
capital is Frank Calzon, who is of Cuban origin. Since his arrival in
the United States in 1960, under the sponsorship of U.S. agencies,
including the CIA, Calzon has specialized in propaganda campaigns
against Cuba.

In 1993, also with U.S. government financing, he began to promote
the creation on the island of so-called nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs), which according to the plans, would later be strengthened
when they become conduits for humanitarian aid to the island.

It has been said that Washington has outlined two basic tasks for
Freedom House: to transmit to Cuba propaganda which paints a rosy
picture of capitalism; and to contribute to the establishment there
of what is called a "civilian society" - that is, one made up
essentially of anti-socialist groups which end up isolating the
Revolution.

Two high-ranking officials of the current administration announced
on July 16 in a press conference that the government had allocated
500 000 dollars to the foundation, the first official aid (that is,
the first made public) destined to further the above-mentioned
intentions.

Government figures and officials of Freedom House have given notice
in public speeches about what they are doing or have suggested, in
one way or another, what they propose to accomplish with that money
and other funds.

Among ongoing activities, the agency is printing up propaganda
materials aimed at those whom they consider "legitimate elements"
who, in line with their thinking, should begin to dismember the
current Cuban civil society, until it is converted into something
that satisfies U.S. authorities.

What will be the content of this written material "made in the USA"
and which they expect to bring into the country for subversive
purposes? Their objective will be to transmit to their readers,
naturally in a very attractive form, a set of ideas and values which
are part of the highly disputed type of democracy which exists in the
United States.

Colleagues from over there have told me that in addition, the funds
turned over by the White House are for the publication of articles
and other materials written by annexationists who portray themselves
on the island as independent journalists or human rights activists.

It is said that Freedom House has selected a group of U.S.
organizations also known as NGOs to take part in the mission to
weaken current Cuban society little by little and to replace it with
another, as I explained above, in which there would be no room for
revolutionary power.

These efforts extend to third countries, with the goal of
encouraging NGOs, human rights activists, intellectuals and trade
union leaders, all scrupulously selected for their pro-U.S. stands,
to join in the previously mentioned task. This would also serve to
cover up Washington's leading role in this political and ideological
campaign against Cuba.

Furthermore, it is said in Washington that the foundation hopes to
promote visits to Cuba of persons who took part in ldemocratic
transitionsk in countries such as those of Eastern Europe, with the
objective of advising and encouraging "dissident" actions by small
groups that call themselves independent, and among intellectuals whom
they consider vulnerable.

Looking at this part of Washington's plan, and what is publicly
announced or insinuated there, it is important to make a clear
distinction between Cuba's normal foreign relations and the contacts
from abroad tainted by subversive machinations.

In this sense, suffice it to say that the caravan of visitors which
Freedom House dreams of sending to Havana is not designed to achieve
the normal and always desirable exchanges among professionals or of
any other type, but rather to undermine the internal situation of an
independent and sovereign country.

It is in line with a strategy concerning Cuba enunciated by the
president of the United States in a speech on June 27 of last year.
To put it into practice, he turned over half a million dollars in a
public ceremony three months later, on October 6.

All of this carries a warning. While the implementation of the
Helms-Burton Act seriously affected relations between Havana and
Washington, those in the United States who have defended the use of
activities with an apparently noble image to achieve the same goal
have not relented.

At the same time, in their form of proposing these plans, they make
it clear that they hope to follow rules established in actions taken
against the former Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist
countries, which can be summed up in the idea of using silk gloves to
kill the Revolution.

Within Cuba, there are two types of people who are being called
upon, consciously or unconsciously, to aid these U.S. machinations:
first of all, the "independent" groups which receive money from U.S.
government agencies; and secondly, the na ve whose vision does not go
beyond appearances.

But despite all of this, Cuba, in one more demonstration of the
confidence it has in the vast majority of its population, has no
intention of breaking or limiting its ties with the world, including
those it has with many NGOs, even as U.S. plots against it are
growing, as shown by the case of Freedom House.

But given all of this, it is very important that everyone understand
now and for all time that Cuba's position must not be confused with
naivete or "laissez-faire" in the name of alleged principles which
led other socialist countries to suicide.

What must be stated first of all is that Cuba is well aware of the
subversive intentions of these activities, among other reasons
because from the president of the United States on down, these
intentions have been made perfectly clear repeatedly. Furthermore,
Cuba will do whatever necessary, and has all the means necessary at
its disposal, to break the back of those plans.

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